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Abstract:

In this paper we present MeshCast, a peer-to-peer (p2p)
multicast protocol for applications requiring high bandwidth
(such as live video streaming) from a server to a large number
of receivers. Traditional tree-based approaches to overlay
multicast inefficiently utilise the outgoing bandwidth of
participating nodes and poorly adapt to node membership
churn. In contrast, MeshCast is based on Chainsaw meshbased
approach to data delivery that better utilises bandwidth
and provides excellent adaptation properties. In this
paper we identify properties that enable mesh-based overlay
multicast protocols to better utilise the available bandwidth
and consequently support higher data stream rates in
heterogeneous environments. MeshCast uses a gossip-based
algorithm to adapt the overlay to peer heterogeneity, while
still preserving the advantages of a mesh-based overlay. Our
experiments show that MeshCast can support 68% higher
stream rates and provides a 22% improvement in buffering
delay over the recently proposed Chainsaw protocol for a
heterogeneous node bandwidth distribution